IN the early 1870's, when a wrong impression of Christian Science was imposed on the public by an item in a Lynn, Massachusetts, newspaper, Mary Baker Eddy came to the public's defense. She wrote a correction and succeeded in having the editor publish it. As Discoverer of this Science, she assumed the responsibility of seeing that this Science was made available to the public in the form in which God revealed it to her. By thus early protecting the public from impositions regarding her divine discovery, Mrs. Eddy demonstrated her great love for mankind and her selfless desire to free her fellow men from the bondage imposed by false materialistic beliefs. She continued to labor incessantly that all peoples might know their divine rights in the only way they can know them—through the Science of Christianity, which James described in his epistle (1:27) as "pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father."
On another occasion, when a booklet by a friendly author publicly defended her against violent attacks from the pulpit, she asked that the publication of the book be discontinued. "I did this," she said, "solely, because the author's vehemence in denouncing the pulpit's furious attacks upon me was not consonant with my Christian sentiment. It is written of our great Master whose life and teachings furnish my model that 'When he was reviled he reviled not again'" (Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy by Irving C. Tomlinson, p. 151).
In obedience to this example and teaching of their Leader, Christian Scientists find it no less imperative that they think and act as Christians than that they see to it that the letter of Christian Science is quoted and published correctly. All of Mrs. Eddy's writings demand this. Particularly do the Tenets and By-Laws of the Church Manual require that the acts of individual members and the conducting of all business of The Mother Church and of The Christian Science Publishing Society be impelled by Christian motives and brotherly love.
